Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a well known protocol for managing networks. SNMP is a stateless protocol, meaning it does not need to keep the communications state with a remote node. SNMP messages may be sent asynchronously via user datagram protocol (UDP). This enables an SNMP server to send multiple messages and perform other actions while waiting for a response. The SNMP server may listen for SNMP reply messages or SNMP traps.
SNMP uses a binary-encoding following basic encoding rules (BER). The binary encoding provides for a smaller packet size and therefore greater throughput. However, the BER is difficult for some users because it is not easily human readable.
The network configuration protocol (NETCONF) is a more recent protocol developed to provide a text-based configuration. NETCONF is a session-based protocol that uses extensible markup language (XML) based data encoding. Accordingly, NETCONF messages are generally more easily read by human operators. However, the XML based data encoding requires a larger packet size and may reduce throughput. Furthermore, in large networks, NETCONF becomes resource intensive as large portions of memory become necessary to keep connection states.